Garden Therapy

My favorite thing to do and several times throughout the day is to go out and water my garden, pull weeds, check out any new growth, or plant new seed. Any stress that I may have for any reason, completely melts away when I go out there. Sigh. It's a beautiful thing. Oh the first picture is of my oranges, newly growing tomatoes, then you see my new banana tree and then the bottom is cabbage and onions in the background. I would have so much more but my chickens escaped and ate every thing in my garden. I no longer have them until I can build a seperate coop for them. I can't wait so I can buy some laying hens again. I miss having them.

After Kid's Bedtime

So when the kids go to bed at 8pm, this is what it looks like at our house. That's my friend Michele who lives with us and there is Charles on the computer. I'm in the other room usually with my laptop or working on something. :) It's so quiet! We actually have set internet times during the day where no two one of us is on it at the same time, but at night, it's opened up to all users. This is usually our relaxing time since were just working throughout the day. Once all eight kids are laid down, it's super quiet!

I'm In Love!!!

Today I went to my ultrasound at 3 months so they can determine the due date. I KNOW my due date because... I know. I'll leave it there. I know that for a fact, today I am 13 weeks. Theirs came out to 14 weeks and 2 days. That is not possible. I'm not explaining it. Just leaving it there. I was gone on a 10 day trip alone, by myself, without my family. So I know I'm not further along. Any-hoo, I had so much fun watching our little one bouncing around, as hyper as can be. I said, "I know that's my kid!" Ha. He/she was propelling itself by jumping off the placenta. So funny! Charles was with me and we loved every minute of it. It was just so much fun. I just can't believe how far they are developed at only 3 months. It's amazing! I'm so in love. :) By the way, that's it's little fist on the mouth.

Krazy Kids!

This pic is of goofy Kyle on Valentines Day. He's my silly little stinker. LOL. Anyway, we did have the kids doing chores in pair with their buddy but it wasn't working out because usually only one of them was actually doing the chore while the other one was watching or playing. So I decided to split them all up to and give them all separate chores so I can see who is not doing their part. It works out much better and conquers laziness. If they don't do their chore before lunch then they don't eat. Same for dinner. Works good. :D

P.S. If you are lost about what's going on. We have another family living with us for a little while. A mom and her 3 kids. Add a little one that I babysit and that makes 9 kids. Wow! Amazing. I have a new respect for larger families. You know, I always wondered what it'd be like but it's very possible when their is organization in the home and everyone does their part. I learned this the hard way. :P

Silly Girl and Chore Trade

I love this picture of Ivy in this costume. So funny! LOL. Looks like she is riding the chicken. Had to share the pic! This weekend was crazy and tiring. Okay, my husband and I have this awesome trade we do. I hate sweeping and mopping the floor, he doesn't care for mowing the lawn. Well, I love mowing the lawn and he loves mopping. So we figure, "good trade, good trade". So Saturday I was outside mowing the lawn and weed eating for quite awhile, while ALSO mending my poor garden. My Great Dane likes the feel of my garden so she just lays in it. In the meantime, all my onions were dug up. The roots were spared so I replanted and I'm hoping they survive. Saturday was so tiring doing all that work that it was hard to get up for Sunday church but it was certainly worth it! Church was great today and I love the preaching. I love the people too. Tonight was baptism night so 6 people were baptized. :)

Amazing Eight!

We now have an Amazing Eight kids living here. Imagine the loudness of the house! Whoo wee! Totally! So, I asked before about needing some ideas for keeping the house from looking like a tornado ran through it. Here's some ideas we came up with:

1. We wrote down a chore list between Michele and I and split them down the middle. Ex: She has one bathroom to keep clean throughout the day and I have the other. She cleans pots, I clean dishes. Etc.

2. Kids must do their assigned straightening chores twice a day, before lunch and before dinner. Not cleaning results not getting to eat the meal.

3. I cook 3 times a week and Michele 3 times a week. Sunday is optional of who cooks or leaves room for eating out. Whoever cooks dinner that night has to thoroughly clean kitchen before going to bed. Whoever cooks dinner, the other person has to make lunch that day.

Blah, blah, blah... on it goes. A nice little list. It really helps! I can't do it all alone because all the kids are all so little. 8 kids under 8 years old. LOL. Anyway, here is the kids just before prayer and bedtime with Charles.

My Dog Scooby Died

p.s. This is picture I took of Ashley kissing Scooby when I first got him.

A few days ago, Charles came in to tell me that he went looking for Scooby (my miniature Dachshund) in the backyard. He came to Charles but was hiding under the kid's slide. He said Scooby looked skinnier. I went out to see and sure enough he barely had enough strength to come to me. I took him inside and held him. 

So I called to make appointment with vet for this morning. They told me to give him dropper with pedialite every half hour. So I did it for hours trying to nurse him back to health. So this morning, I went to go get him from his bed but he had died overnight.

I know sometimes kids are kids.  Things happen or kids are ignorant.  I had some kids over and one of them threw him up in the air and he landed on concrete.  I freaked and said "Don't ever do that again."  Within 10 minutes I saw her get on the trampoline with him and throw him off the trampoline.  He went high up in the air and once again landed on his stomach.  He died of internal injuries. Absolutely BROKE my heart.  My kids are used to little animals and I've really taught them about how to be gentle.  But other kids that have never had animals maybe don't understand. They are not rag dolls.   


Hopefully the lesson was learned and it won't happen again.  So that's why I felt like getting Hoover was getting my Scooby back.

How To Clean With A Herd

Okay, so how does one go about cleaning a house that consists of eight kids? I've never been there. So I asked someone today how their mom did it with ten kids. She said the mom didn't. The kids cleaned and the mom did all the cooking and laundry. I thought that was interesting. No wonder all those kids are such awesome housekeepers. They did the bulk of it all growing up. So the only thing I can think of to keep a handle on things is to have all the kids straighten up before every meal time. No one can eat until all the toys, clothes, etc are all picked up. So far that's worked good. Half the time I forget though. LOL. This week I'm gonna go through and try to throw out stuff to make it simpler. :) If you have any great ideas, please let me know. :D

Anonymous Comments Are For Cowards

If you are going to leave a negative comment on my blog, please have enough courage to leave your name. Otherwise, don't leave a comment at all. If you wouldn't say it to my face, then you probably shouldn't say it at all.

Trials and Hard Times For Friend

My friend and her three kids are staying with us for awhile. Divorce is an ugly thing that cracks and bruises the heart. It's sad to see first hand what it does to little kids that don't understand why their daddy is gone. I'm glad to be here to give lots of hugs. Seeing what divorce does first hand because I'm experiencing what my friend is going through, makes me sick to my stomach. It really does feel like a death. I think "My God, 50% of marriages end in divorce"? This is sad! It's heart breaking. My heart is breaking watching it unfold and I hate every moment of it. As a friend, I hate to see this happen. I am fortunate my parents are married still and so I've never had to experience it. I never want to. I am one of the fortunate ones. Sigh.

Rock Climbing and Day of Swimming

This week is spring break for the boys so we are trying to do different fun stuff for every day. Anyhow, we took them to the Y for rock climbing and swimming. See the picture where Ryan (blonde hair) is following the lady with the weights? She had no idea that Ryan and his friend were right behind her mimicking her squats all the way down the path. It was so funny, my friend and I were trying to quietly laugh so she wouldn't know. It was so cute. When the lady finally did realize what they were up to, she had a good chuckle too. LOL!

New Vaccination Schedule

If some of you have wondered where I have been, I have been reading book after book by Jenny McCarthy about her struggle with her son who has Autism. The more I read, the more I was shocked at how much vaccinations were linked. Could this have happened to my own son? Just like some of the other stories, after a certain vaccination, my son broke out with such bad eczema that his face bled. They are not saying you shouldn't have your kids vaccinated but they are saying they don't need to be getting them at such a young age and they don't need all of them. This is the schedule I'll be implementing with Ashley and any future babies.

To read about it go here:
http://generationrescue.org/pdf/user_friendly.pdf

That's the document talking about vaccinations. If you scroll down to the very bottom, it gives the recommended vaccination schedule.

To see Jenny McCarthy's site:
http://generationrescue.org

My Kids Answer Questions About Me

Cut and paste these questions and ask your kids their answers.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Ryan (7 yrs old) -I love you.
Chaz (8 yrs old)- I love you.
Kyle (5 yrs old) - Be good
Ivy (3 yrs old.) - Be Sick

2. What makes mom happy?
Ryan-When I play with her
Chaz- By being smarter
Kyle- You laugh
Ivy- kissing

3. What makes mom sad?
Ryan-Being naughty and disrespectful and being bad at church.
Chaz- Being real bad.
Kyle- working
Ivy- because you didn't want to play

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Ryan-You say funny words and you make fake fart sounds
Chaz- She says funny words!
Kyle- by mommy dancing and shaking her booty
Ivy- You say cheese!

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Ryan-A baby
Chaz- She was very good (Ahem)
Kyle- she stole from the mall (Ummm... that was looooong ago when I was a freshman)
Ivy- Real little

6. How old is your mom?
Ryan-29
Chaz- 29
Kyle- 29
Ivy- 5 but older than 3

7. How tall is your mom?
Ryan-44 inches
Chaz- 38 inches
Kyle- 25 lbs
Ivy- 29 inches

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Ryan-Play with me outside
Chaz- To exercise at YMCA
Kyle- being a princess like Cinderella
Ivy- going to work

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Ryan-You go fun places
Chaz- She works
Kyle- get a spanking when you are with your mom and you're bad.
Ivy- Run in circles

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Ryan-because you are so nice and pretty.
Chaz- because you are so nice
Kyle- being so funny!
Ivy- Being on tables and working (Ummm... that sounds bad)

11. What is your mom really good at?
Ryan-cleaning and teaching
Chaz- doing exercises
Kyle- playing games
Ivy- Being on the fire pole (Man, she's gonna give me bad rep)

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Ryan- picking up daddy in the air and Daisy our dog
Chaz- melting the sun and playing golfing.
Kyle- being mad
Ivy- Not getting ice cream

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Ryan-clean up the stuff in the house.
Chaz- she works and listens to her boss
Kyle- clean up the floor
Ivy- give Ryan candy

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Ryan- milk shake
Chaz- fruits and vegetables
Kyle- a sandwich with onions and fruits and vegetables
Ivy- candy

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
Ryan-You play with me so much
Chaz- because you are being so nice
Kyle- she's grateful about going to the mall and and Disneyland
Ivy- because you are being five

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Ryan-Cinderella
Chaz- Princess
Kyle- a grandma
Ivy- A princess. Not a bear.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Ryan-we both play and do head stands in water
Chaz- We play together
Kyle- talking nice to each and not kicking each other and not swacking and punching.
Ivy- We do circles in the giant swimming pool

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Ryan-We have the same hair
Chaz- we both have two golfing sticks
Kyle- we are both silly

19. How are you and your mom different?
Ryan-we are girl and boy
Chaz- You are older than me and we have different faces and different bodies
Kyle- because we like each other

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Ryan-because I am your son and little baby
Chaz- because I love you and you love me
Kyle- because you are being so cute.
Ivy- because she be's happy and wants to get ice cream

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Ryan- how you got married
Chaz- that he's kind and you both believe in being kind to each other.
Kyle- that you are nice to each other
Ivy- that you got married

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Ryan- Disneyland
Chaz- Amazing Jakes.
Kyle- Disneyland and Chuck E. Cheese
Ivy- ice cream place

Other Half of Family Sick

Now that we are back from vacation, the other half of family is sick. Before it was Chaz, Ivy, and Ashley. Now it's me, Charles, and Kyle. Ryan escaped it all. Charles and Kyle have bronchitis and I have pneumonia. Sheesh! I am trying to rest but it's driving me nuts that my house needs to be cleaned. I hate leaving it like this and it's very hard for me to stay in bed. I haven't even gotten to unpack. Lord, give me strength! I just want to be back to my old self so I can get everything in order again. I miss my old hyper self.

Our California Vacation!

Our California Vacation Photos!

Just click on Link above. :) To see comment on pictures, just put mouse over words above the picture.''

We had great time and we stayed a total of 6 days. It was first intended to be only 3 days. We loved it so much that we extended it. :D Disneyland is truly magical and we loooved the beach for sure! Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! I had to sift through 400 pictures and managed to dwindle it down to about 130. LOL.

13 Things PMS Stands For

Ha! This is funny. I had to share!

1. Pass My Shotgun

2. Psychotic Mood Shift

3. Perpetual Munching Spree

4. Puffy Mid-Section

5. People Make me Sick

6. Provide Me with Sweets

7. Pardon My Sobbing

8. Pimples May Surface

9. Pass My Sweat pants

10. Pissy Mood Syndrome

11. Plainly; Men Suck

12. Pack My Stuff

And my favorite one :

13. Potential Murder Suspect

I'm Back!!

We had a BLAST in California! Man, oh, man. We just partied it out big time. I can't wait to share pics with you. Right now I am filtering through 400 pictures so I can only make a slideshow of only a 1/4 of that. It'll take me a bit, lol. So I will share soon!

Vacation in California

I haven't posted lately because we've been on a vacation for the last 5 days. Being the spontaneous super studs that we are, we just took off on a moments notice for Disneyland and the beach. :) Will post pics when we get back.

p.s. "moments notice" means we were just sitting around for breakfast and I said "Hey, lets go to Disneyland!" We packed and left one hour later. I love spontaneity! So exciting. :D

Little Cuties After Bath

I love how they are playing together now. It's so cute! This is them just after a bath and they are cuddling to get warm.

Sick Babies

My poor kids have been so sick. I finally took them into Urgent Care last night. It was so packed full because sicknesses are really going around right now. For the last week, Chaz has been complaining that he can't hear out of his left ear. I have to talk loud to him. His ear doesn't hurt at all but the nurse called to say both his ears were just flaming red. Ashley, I thought, had a cold she wasn't getting over. Then she started having fevers. Ivy hasn't been wanting to eat and now she's got fevers. My husband Charles got the flu twice and he's still sick. So, off I went to a children's urgent care with 3 of the kids in tow. It was so packed! It took an hour to just sign them in. Lots of sick kids. Finally, we got seen and we actually had a good time giggling together while the doctor listened to all of their chests. They thought it was so funny. Ashley, my one year old, kept mad dogging the doctor. She always does that to strangers. So we found out that Chaz's major hearing loss is due to a bad ear infection. He's had absolutely no pain so we didn't even know he was going through that. He has it in both ears. Ivy has a throat infection. Ashley has bronchitis and she got a breathing treatment while we were there. I had to hold it on her because she was screaming and trying to pull the mask off. All together we got 7 prescriptions for them and so I'm having to keep track of their doses on a chart so it doesn't get confusing. As soon as Charles gets some of his projects out, he's gonna go in too to see if he can get come antibiotics so he can get better too. He's got a deadline so he's been working on them even though he's been real sick. :( I definitely won't be in church tomorrow so I can keep Ashley in bed and well rested. I will have to reschedule my nursery duty I was supposed to have for church.

Can You Help Me With My Pee Pee Dog?

Little Casanova here has potty training issues. I bought those potty training pads you can kind of see in picture in corner. He will go potty on it but he won't go poopy. It is driving me nuts. He's waiting to go on carpet. He never potties on carpet. Just takes a nice big dump or too. (Sorry to be vulgar. It's just getting on my nerves). We've tried leading him back to his potty pad. We've tried putting his poopy on the pad so he knows where it goes. We've tried putting him outside. But he waits till he gets back inside and then heads for the carpet for poopy or heads to his potty pad for pee. Arghhhh! Someone give me some advice!

Messing with Electrical Fun Stuff

I love installing things like this. It's like a puzzle. It's only more of a puzzle when you're setting it up for double switches. It's a lot easier since I've done all 7 in our house. I got sick of just having an ugly light in our breakfast room. (That reminds me Mrs. C, that's our breakfast room so so our big "formal dining table" is actually in our living room area) Our breakfast room is next to the kitchen (like you see in picture) and it's where we sit when we're just all hanging out different things or we're just snacking. Of course at first when I start to take down and mess with this stuff, I get nervous thinking, "the power better totally be off to this stuff". I never just trust how things are labeled with the breaker. I always test it. No one needs a toasted mommy around here.

Little Drummer Girl

Ashley always likes to climb up here and "Jam" on the kid's drums. You can see her really going at it on one of the pictures. LOL. Who says only boys play drums? Well, I PREFER she plays like flute or guitar but you never know. Just please, don't play the tuba in band. This is what practice at home would sound like. "Bum, bum, bum, bum....bu,bu,bu bum, bum...." for like two hours straight.

Front facing or Rear facing? Car seat safety TRUE STORY

This is really good to watch

Long Time Friend Comes For Visit

Ohhh, you know how it is when you have a long time friend you haven't seen in years, and they want to come and see you, see your kids, and just see how you are doing. Heidi is a friend I met when I was sixteen. She has seen me go through a lot (you know, trouble teen years) and and so she saw me way before I was married. She knew I always wanted a little girl named Ashley Rose. She knew my hopes and dreams for a family someday. I saw her go through hard times and heartbreaks. Well, we lost contact and the last time she saw me was 8 years ago when I just had Chaz. So imagine her seeing me now with 5 kids! LOL. She loved visiting and even came with us to Wednesday night church service. It was great seeing her again and the kids really loved her. (Ryan especially liked hiding behind chairs and then scaring her). Daisy (our Great Dane) kept trying to sneak in the house to nuzzle her because she liked Heidi.

Crazy Family Trampoline

I was sooo tired today so I went to crash in my bed. When I woke up later I noticed Charles wasn't working in his office but I could hear kids playing in the backyard. I looked out the window and Charles was sitting on the trampoline trying to help Ashley get over her fear of it. He held her the whole time and didn't let the kids jump to hard so she wouldn't freak. That's why in the pics she is clinging to daddy. So cute. It's pretty warm right now where I live so she is happy in her cute little diaper. :D Anyhow, I was in such a rush to take pics I didn't put it on the "outdoor" setting so I didn't get to get clear shots. It was such a cute way to wake up hearing the kids playing and seeing daddy out there with them too. I'm so lucky.

Ashley's Favorite Picture (Time Flies)

My Grandma found this picture for me of a mommy with her baby. I really it and so I hung it just above their changing table since I spend a good time there changing diapers. It reminds me how short my time is with them at this age and to always appreciate it. Well, when I go to lay Ashley on the changing table, she just wants to stand there and say "baby, mommy". As soon as I'm done changing her, she'll pop up, point at the picture and say "baby", "mommy". It's so cute. :D

Women's Battle

"And best of all, as the highest portraiture of Jesus, try to forgive your enemies, as He did; and let those sublime words of your Master, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," always ring in your ears. Forgive, as you hope to be forgiven. Heap coals of fire on the head of your foe by your kindness to him. Good for evil, recollect, is godlike. Be godlike, then; and in all ways and by all means, so live that all may say of you, "He has been with Jesus." -Charles Spurgeon

This is definitely something I have to work on myself. I used to so easily forgive! In a lot of ways, I still do. It's just when you befriend someone and they betray you more than once, it hurts deep down. Then when you see them again, you wonder. Are they smiling at me to my face because they genuinely want to? Or are they smiling at me and thinking something evil in their heart? I know there is a point of forgiving but not necessarily taking them in as a close friend again. I want to go beyond that. I want to see them, be able to say hello with a smile, and truly mean it. To not harbor a darkness in my heart toward them.

Today is February 11th so I read Proverbs 11th correspond with the day. This was in the chapter.

12. "It is foolish to belittle one's neighbor; a sensible person keeps quiet. 13. A gossip goes around telling secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence."

Verse 12 is a struggle for me but not verse 13. I never tell a friend's secret unless I thought it was common knowledge and not a secret by accident. Then I feel like a turd. But... The first verse, I think can be a common problem amongst women at times. That is one of the hardest things for women. It seems in order to feed our self esteem, we have to look down on others and find something to belittle them. It's an ugly game women play. That verse spoke to my heart and so I thought I'd share it. :)

Who's Laying an Egg Now? (Note added)

I was busy feeding the chickens and noticed that Ashley, who was playing next to me, was missing. I

started calling her name. I looked over and there she was. Sitting in the hen house. Ghetto hen house it may be but we just bought the plans to build two of these hen houses by Chick Chalet for them. Two of them will hold 24 hens together so it's what we need. We are saving up for the cost of the materials. So these Ameraucanas will just have to be happy with their tiny apartment. Oh! Sadie, my Buff Cochin started laying again. It's warm enough so that was awesome. Of course little Ivy, my 3 year old, said "Mommy, can I hold the egg and take it to the fridge?". I told her yes, and not to wash it (because it'll spoil faster) and just put in the fridge. I guess it didn't make it there because I found a cracked egg. LOL.

*Note added 1 hour later: It's pouring rain and I just had to go rescue more my poor chickens! If you look at the blog I just posted, you'll see that my hen house is too small for them but we're building another one. I had to go out there, get soaking wet, so I could pack them all together like sardines to make sure they are warm. Poor guys! One of the silly chickens was shivering on TOP of the hen house rather than inside. The ducks were practically wading around in the flood. Maybe I'll rename the hen house "The Ark".

My Favorite Family

I picked up this book (The Duggars: 20 and Counting) the other day because this is a family I really adore, admire,and wish to model my life after. Um, I'm not saying I'm gonna have that many kids (I'm no super mommy!) , but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it either! It's completely biblical. Only the world says otherwise. One thing to live by that really helps me. If the media is for it, you know to run to your bible and find the truth instead. If the media is against it, you might want to check out why. I've learned that Hollywood isn't exactly who I want to model my life after. It's scary. So this book has all kinds of great organizing ideas, and neat ways to do things that I never thought of before. I was reading the book again this morning and read how Michelle recommended a book called "The 15 Minute Organizer" by Emilie Barnes. I was wondering how I'd be able to get a hold of that book since it is an older book. As I was walking into church, the pastor's wife (who's name is Michele coincidentally) walked up to me and told me she'd like to give me a book. Guess what it was called? The 15 Minute Organizer by Emilie Barnes. I couldn't believe it! I thanked her and was just in awe as I went to go sit down for church to start. Wow! God knows the desires of our heart. This is the book I need because it gives ideas for moms that are busy at home and don't have the time to just organize all day, every day, till it's finished. I'm excited about both books! Even if you don't have 18 kids, the Duggar book has amazing ideas on running a houseful successfully and more importantly, biblically. I found both those books real cheap on Amazon.

Kid's Club

We all headed to the mall for the Kid's Club that they hold there once a week. We had to take Ivy's neighbor friend as well. :) Of course, what's a mall day without having makeovers at the makeup stand? I bought the make up as well. That is my friend Michele getting some makeup and giving her daughter a kiss. :D We loved her eye shadow so she had to buy it. I've been going to these kids club since Chaz was born almost 9 years ago. One thing I didn't know though! When you are a Kids Club member, you get discounts in the food court (20%) and they ride the carousel for free. Awesommmmeee..... that's what Charles and I said because those are $3 a pop and with 5 kids, well, that adds up fast. We had a lot of fun that day and I think we are gonna keep going to those. I think every other week though instead of every week. :P Can you believe Ivy's pose in that hat picture? LOL. I told her to tilt her head down and look up at me and she got it in a second. Couldn't believe it. I didn't even show her what I meant. What a poser. Oh yeah, we all went into one of the stores and we had fun trying on hats with the girls and just eye shopping.